The impact of school ownership in Spain. A regional analysis throughout unbiased parametric distance functions

Resumo

Last published results from PISA 2006 Report show that Spanish students have a poor performance according to test scores. However, there are significant differences among students attending publicly financed schools. The comparison among public and government dependent private schools (GDPS) could lead us to unfair conclusions because of possible school selection bias. In this paper we propose the use of a quasi-experimental Propensity Score Matching Approach in order to correctly analyse the impact of school ownership on student achievement. After tackling the self-selection problem we compare, using PISA 2006 data, student efficiency by school type across Spanish regions using parametric distance functions. To do this, we propose two original measures, the Average Treatment effect on the Treated on the Production Frontier (ATTpf) and assuming mean efficiency (ATTpfe). The general pattern shows that on average students benefit more of attending GDPS although there are wide divergences in student efficiency by school type and across regions.